HARRISBURG - In the parlance of modern America, former state Senate Democratic Leader Robert J. Mellow and PNC Bank Regional President Peter Danchak enjoyed a "bromance," a top state Senate official testified Monday.

To highlight the strong ties between the two men, Senate Democratic Caucus Chief of Staff Anthony Lepore dropped the slang term for close, nonsexual friendship and affection between two straight men into day one of a preliminary hearing for Mr. Mellow and five others on corruption charges. The close ties, prosecutors say, led Mr. Mellow to work relentlessly to get PNC Bank work underwriting Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission bonds when Mr. Danchak asked for help.

Mr. Lepore, testifying with immunity from prosecution and still holding the job he had under Mr. Mellow, said his former boss and "Danchak and his crew" made it clear to him that they were "maybe best friends."

"They were boys; they were tight," Mr. Lepore testified. "They spent a lot of time together. They talked on the phone quite a lot."

It was Mr. Danchak who arranged a PNC-paid-for limousine that he, Mr. Mellow, Mr. Danchak and some of Mr. Mellow's other close friends took to a New York Yankees game at an unspecified date, Mr. Lepore said.

"Did you know who was paying for this trip?" state Assistant Attorney General Laurel Brandstetter asked Mr. Lepore.

"Pete," Mr. Lepore replied.

The limo ride, baseball game and other gifts provided by PNC are a key part of an ethics charge against Mr. Mellow, who is also charged with conspiring and steering contracts to PNC by himself and through Senate staffers.

Ms. Brandstetter did not ask the identity of the others who went on the trip, but on cross-examination Mr. Lepore said they might have included Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce President Austin Burke, a longtime friend of Mr. Mellow, and attorney John Moses, a prominent Northeast Pennsylvania criminal defense lawyer who was also a top official for the organization that raises money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

"PNC was the biggest bank in Pennsylvania and they really weren't getting any work and wanted some work," Mr. Lepore said.

Mr. Mellow had Mr. Lepore come up from Harrisburg to his Senate office in Peckville to introduce him to Mr. Danchak.

"I got to know Pete pretty well," Mr. Lepore said.

He later met with J.B. Kelly, who worked for PNC Capital Markets, the part of the bank that handles bonds, and another man associated with PNC, to close the deal.

Prosecutors allege that after Mr. Mellow had Mr. Lepore get involved, PNC started getting bond work to the tune of more than $2.4 million in fees starting in June 2006 through November 2012.

Like many government agencies, the turnpike commission sells bonds to raise money for projects, in its case, road and bridge construction and renovation and others.

Mr. Lepore said he spent time finding out if PNC was qualified because sometimes people recommended for jobs or contracts at the turnpike by Mr. Mellow and other senators weren't qualified for the jobs or contracts they were seeking. PNC had plenty of nationwide experience doing bond work, he said.

"They were well-qualified," Mr. Lepore testified.

He said he talked with turnpike chief executive officer Joseph Brimmeier or commission board chairman Mitchell Rubin about getting PNC work. Both are among the six charged who were subjects of the hearing Monday.

"Mitchell was on the board. He was our guy. He was Fumo's guy," said Mr. Lepore, who said he spent as much time answering to Mr. Fumo as to Mr. Mellow.

Fumo is former state Sen. Vince Fumo of Philadelphia, who was a de facto co-leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus with Mr. Mellow, though they did not like each other much, Mr. Lepore said.

Mr. Fumo, who like Mr. Mellow is serving a federal prison sentence on unrelated charges, is not charged in the case.

The ties between Mr. Danchak and Mr. Mellow went beyond business, Mr. Lepore made clear.

Mr. Lepore said when Mr. Danchak's wife was terminally ill, Mr. Mellow "spent a good bit of time with Pete and his wife." Mr. Mellow also worked to help Mr. Danchak's daughter get into college.

Often, Mr. Lepore said, he would work out of the Peckville office and Mr. Danchak would come around.

"On a very regular basis, Pete would stop by and say, 'Hi.' We would have lunch from time to time," Mr. Lepore testified.

After the limousine-ride Yankees game he attended, Mr. Lepore said, the group went to dinner at a New York restaurant before the limo took them home.

In the grand jury presentment outlining the case against Mr. Mellow and the others, Mr. Lepore is quoted as saying Mr. Danchak would take Mr. Mellow to games "10 times a year, maybe more," but on the witness stand Monday Mr. Lepore could not give a number.

Mr. Danchak also had PNC host a reception for Mr. Mellow at Sparks Steak House in New York in December 2007 as part of that weekend's Pennsylvania Society festivities. The annual Pennsylvania Society dinner, which raises money for charity, brings together "a who's who" of the state's politicians and business leaders in New York City just before Christmas.

Mr. Mellow wanted PNC and Mr. Danchak to host the dinner to signal his plans to run for governor in 2010, Mr. Lepore said.

"Bob Mellow certainly had an interest in the governor's race and felt like he should do something like this," he said.

The dinner, in a lower-level room, featured hors d'oeuvres and a butler, but Mr. Mellow popped in only briefly because he became "very sick."

The dinner is also considered part of the state Ethics Law violation with which prosecutors have charged Mr. Mellow.

Mr. Lepore said Mr. Mellow would regularly tap him to call turnpike officials to sell tickets to his fundraisers, which included his annual picnic on Montage Mountain and local golf tournament as well as a more formal Harrisburg affair.

Mr. Brimmeier volunteered to help from the time he became CEO, Mr. Lepore said.

"I'm gonna' be your guy, you can trust me," Mr. Brimmeier told Mr. Mellow in a meeting at the Capitol, Mr. Lepore testified.

"It's nice to have friends in high places. He was going to look out for us. He was going to look out for Bob Mellow," Mr. Lepore said.

Requests for jobs or contracts that were "Mellow-centric" generally went to Mr. Brimmeier instead of Mr. Rubin, who was Mr. Fumo's "super close friend" at the commission, Mr. Lepore said.

Sometimes job requests were turned down, for example, if someone was entirely unqualified, such as someone who wanted to drive a vehicle that required a commercial driver's license, but didn't have a license, he said. Sometimes, vendors might not be qualified for one contract, but would get a promise from turnpike officials that they would be taken care of later, he said.

On cross-examination, attorney Daniel T. Brier, one of Mr. Mellow's defense lawyers, seized upon Mr. Lepore's characterization of the bank's qualifications and got Mr. Lepore to agree that the bank was a major employer in Northeast Pennsylvania and asked Mr. Lepore if Mr. Mellow wasn't just serving a constituent, something he would do for others he represents.

"They (PNC Bank) petitioned the government," Mr. Brier said.

"True," Mr. Lepore replied.

"You felt comfortable advocating for them as a constituent service?" Mr. Brier asked.

"True," Mr. Lepore said.

Mr. Lepore acknowledged Mr. Mellow and Mr. Danchak were friends long before Mr. Danchak asked for help in getting the bank bond work. They were so close that when Mr. Danchak's first wife was dying of cancer in 2008, Mr. Mellow was one of the few people allowed to visit her in a skilled nursing center before she died, and one of the few allowed at her grave site during her funeral, Mr. Lepore affirmed under questioning by Mr. Brier.

Mr. Lepore said he did not believe the game trip or dinner were an effort by Mr. Danchak to influence Mr. Mellow.

"Bob Mellow never told me, 'I'm doing this because Pete took me to a game,'" Mr. Lepore said.

Mr. Lepore also acknowledged that Mr. Mellow never received any money or other "pecuniary gain" for helping out PNC, but added that he only contacted PNC about bond work "because Bob Mellow called and said see what they could do."

Considering PNC was the largest bank in Pennsylvania, Mr. Brier asked if Mr. Lepore believed helping the bank was "good for Pennsylvania."

"Sure," Mr. Lepore replied. "I first and foremost wanted to do what Bob Mellow told me to do."

Mr. Lepore said "steer" was probably the wrong word, but when Mr. Brier went through all the other vendors mentioned in the presentment, Mr. Lepore said Mr. Mellow didn't have anything to do with getting them contracts.

On re-direct examination by Ms. Brandstetter, Mr. Lepore made it clear why PNC got the work.

"Bob Mellow wanted PNC to have this work in no uncertain terms," Mr. Lepore said. "He pushed very hard to get it done. He pushed me so I made many calls (to turnpike officials)."

When he stopped returning Mr. Danchak's calls about the bond work because the banker was calling him so often, Mr. Danchak called Mr. Mellow, who called him and directed him to return Mr. Danchak's calls, he said.

PNC was probably the biggest contractor he worked on, though he said Mr. Mellow worked hard to acquire funding The Commonwealth Medical College, Lackawanna College and Marywood University.

For a "normal" constituent who wanted a turnpike job, he might make one call or none, Mr. Lepore said. By comparison, he made more than 10 on PNC's behalf at Mr. Mellow's urging.

On re-cross examination, Mr. Brier suggested the attorney general's office was putting "on trial" people's right to participate in government.

Before the hearing began, attorney Sal Cognetti, one of Mr. Mellow's other lawyers, charged the prosecution case amounted to nothing more than "gang-tackling" when combined with a federal prosecution of the former senator. He suggested all the charges were investigated in the federal case and the state case amounts to "double jeopardy," which means trying someone twice for the same crime, a practice barred by the U.S. Constitution. He did not elaborate on the claim during the hearing and declined to comment afterward.

Mr. Cognetti and defense lawyers for others charged in the case suggested the state charges impinge on the First Amendment right of people who contributed to political campaigns related to the case. The heart of the case against the six is whether contracts were awarded in exchange for campaign contributions.

Mr. Mellow is serving 16 months in federal prison in Williamsburg, S.C., after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for using Senate staffers to do campaign work and tax evasion for underreporting his proceeds on the sale of his former Peckville Senate office building.

Mr. Danchak has not returned multiple messages from Times-Tribune reporters seeking comment.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com

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